In combat vehicles, providing ventilation of the crew cabin is difficult in several respects: the air supplied from the outside by means of a ventilator must be cleaned mechanically and chemically because it may contain traces of combat gas, thereby producing a considerable drop in the pressure; the air must be distributed in the interior of the crew cabin in an aimed manner requiring air guiding channels, e.g., going to the driver; the crew which is contained in narrow quarters has a considerable air requirement and, furthermore, firing may be necessary from the crew cabin in grenadier vehicles, necessitating, a high air throughput; and, finally, the air must also leave the crew cabin again, in the case of an open, as well as closed, combat room, which constitutes a special difficulty in the case of ABC (Atomic (Nuclear), Bacteriological Chemicals)-proof vehicles.
No known system meets all of these requirements. Known systems with exhaust blowers need an enormous amount of blower capacity to ensure sufficient air supply and cannot produce any air stream directed on the individual consumers. Furthermore, suction through a filter is only possible with an air-tight crew cabin. Also, with ventilation by means of pressure blowers, the blower output is still so high that a radial blower must be used which takes up a lot of the limited interior space. When the combat room is closed, an outlet opening, which can be closed, also must be available. Systems with pressure blowers and suction blowers come closest to meeting the requirements, but they need two blowers and this type of system is fraught with high costs, expensive controls and a loss of structural space.
A combat vehicle is known from U.S. Pat. No. 2,853,153 which discloses an engine contained in a separate space. The engine sucks its combustion air through a filter selectively either from the combat room or from the engine room. However, in this process, the non-cleaned air is sucked into the combat room, which requires an open hatch and does not permit individual delivery of the air to the personnel. The filter has a coarse collector and the particles thus caught are sucked through an opening by the cooling blower of the engine. The opening cannot be closed.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to create a ventilation system which avoids the above-mentioned disadvantages and meets all the requirements at a low technological cost.